Nine years ago, the Mets reached the World Series with a significantly less-talented cast than their modern brethren. Their starting outfield—perhaps the worst in the history of the Fall Classic—was Benny Agbayani, Jay Payton and Timo Perez. Their shortstop was Mike Bordick, with Todd Zeile manning first. The final three spots in the rotation were handled by Glendon Rusch, Rick Reed and Bobby Jones. Armando Benitez (egad) closed and John Franco, age 1,658, set him up. In short, on paper the Mets frightened no one.
Yet those Mets played with heart, spunk and tenacity. After every win, someone would inevitably blast Thelma Houston’s Don’t Leave Me This Way on the clubhouse stereo, turning the room into a loud, bubbly bastion of glee. Veterans like Al Leiter and Robin Ventura set the tone, and Mike Piazza seemed to hit a game-winning home run whenever one was needed. Manager Bobby Valentine, slightly less stable than a one-legged emu, walked and spoke with a swagger that, though often mocked by his players, proved invaluable. The Mets wouldn’t lay down—for anyone.
Ah, memories. Burnt out ends of smoky days. The still cold smell of morning. A street lamp dies, another night is over. Another day is dawning. These Mets lay down—for everyone. They play with little gusto, and less aggressiveness. They rarely hit in the clutch, and make lackluster opposing pitchers appear to be the second coming of Steve Carlton.
When the Yankees suffer through a conga line of injuries, the organization never offers up the maladies as an excuse. The Mets, on the other hand, all but seek out injuries to cite to the media. If only we had Delgado. If only we had Reyes.
If only ...
Repoz
Posted: June 05, 2009 at 10:39 PM |
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1. Alex meets the threshold for granular review Posted: June 06, 2009 at 12:14 AM (#3208194)WTF?
Second of all:
What ghost? What is he talking about? Have the Mets been cursed for their entire existence and I was unaware of it?
But more importantly:
This is exciting to me because it is one of the first times in my life that I've been able to call BS on a nostalgia piece because I actually lived through it.
I loved that team, and there were certainly players on it with "spunk:" Ventura was a clear leader, Turk Wendell was feisty, etc. But it was not an overachieving team of lovable losers, or clutchy veterans that proved everyone wrong, or any of that crap. Mets fans all agree that the 99 team, who lost gut-wrenchingly in the NLCS, was superior. And one might also note the positive country club style chemistry seemed like a poison soon after with players declaring that they didn't need the likes of ARod or Sheffield to ruin their clubhouse chumminess. The 2000 Mets were a solid but mostly uninteresting team. They didn't have any sort of magic that needs be recaptured.
This year's Mets are pretty frighting on paper, assuming you're reading the injury report.
The reminders of the Agbayani-Perez-Rusch-Reed team are pretty relevant, actually. Except for this:
So what? Rick Reed was a good pitcher who walked nobody. Glendon Rusch didn't start a single game in the playoffs that year, even though he had a 4.01 regular season ERA. Is a playoff rotation of Mike Hampton (3.14 ERA), Al Leiter (3.20), Rick Reed (4.11) and Bobby Jones (5.06) particularly bad?
Yucca Flats. The A-bomb. Flag on the moon.
I think that's the point. I think he's trying to say that the 2000 Mets didn't have a ton of talent, not even as much as the previous year's team, but got slightly farther. but your point is good.
Yes. From my perspective, both now and at the time, the 2000 Mets didn't make it farther because they had more spunk or verve or zazz or kapowza, or because they had made peace with a ghost. They made it farther because Mike Hampton pitched his brains out in the NLCS, Ankiel fell apart, McGwire was injured ... or to put it more accurately they made it because baseball is funny and stuff just happens.
Also, the enduring images of the 2000 team are Timo Perez celebrating in the basepaths and then getting thrown out on a Zeile double, and Jay Payton standing stupidly in the batter's box while Jorge Posada tagged him out on a dribbler that rolled fair. Piazza getting a sawed off bat thrown at him by a roid-raging maniac and not responding at all, precipitating an 8-month national debate on the appriopriate payback. Not a team of spunk, heart and tenacity. They were just a normal playoff team, they had some great players, some crappy ones, some beautiful moments and some ugly ones. Not a lot different than the 2006 Mets and not worth wistful "if only's"
In case anyone is still wondering, the words after "ah memories" are lyrics from . . . Memories.
Guess he was a Cats fan.
Agreed - the 1999 team is the one I have real affection for.
There's no proof he was on roids, and Clemens has done everything asked of him to prove his innocence.[/diperna]
'99 and '00 were both pretty memorable years for different reasons. I ended '00 just sad, but I ended '99 in a blinding fury at Kenny Rogers that time and successive events have done nothing to abate.
What prospects will the Mets trade? They pretty much strip-mined the farm system to get Johan Santana, so it doesn't seem like trading prospects for veterans will really be of much help. If they do win about 85 games, they will be in exactly the same limbo that the Phillies themselves were in before they finally put together a roster that was good enough to win the NL East and win a World Series. So what exactly is his point?
Color me skeptical, but I don't think that 3 games out of first when 2/8 of their opening day lineup is on the DL means that the sky is falling or that the team is somehow haunted.
[Moreover, if it's the 2000 Mets they seek to emulate, wouldn't a Nick Johnson or an Aubrey Huff be exactly the type of player they would want to have on their team? Both are first basemen who have value (especially Johnson, when healthy), but they are much closer to the Todd Zeile standard of mediocrity than Carlos Delgado.]
If that game had gone to a 24th inning, Grady... er, Bobby Valentine might have brought in Dotel.
This whole "can't use injuries as an excuse" thing is often taken too far. I can understand the team feeling that way but when it comes from the media and fans it's mostly just macho B.S. An entire team could be stricken with swine flu and some people would be chastising them for using it as an excuse and wondering why the manager, coaches, and grounds-crew didn't get out there to pick up the slack.
Love it.
DB
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